Product category:
Lasers
News Release from: Innolume
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 09 June 2006
Novel laser design opens all-new
applications
Laser chip to enable cost-effective WDM solutions for optical communications using silicon photonic technology including silicon-based arrayed waveguides and light modulators.
NL Nanosemiconductor is claiming a breakthrough achievement in the realisation of a laser chip which will enable cost-effective WDM solutions for optical communications using silicon photonic technology including silicon-based arrayed waveguides (AWGs) and light modulators A single mode CW laser with spectral width of less than 20nm and spectral wavelength between 1200 and 1320nm is currently being put into production at NL Nanosemiconductor's facilities in Dortmund, Germany
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 21 Sep 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Dr Alexey Kovsh, COO at NL Nanosemiconductor explained the achievement, saying: "The uniqueness of our laser is the width (25nm) and uniform shape (less than 3dB modulation at 0.5nm resolution) of the spectrum in the lasing regime".
"Of further importance is the high reproducibility of the lasing spectrum shape".
"We managed to develop a way to get a laser to lase with a very wide emission spectrum, which is of course opposite to the fundamental nature of lasing - at a very narrow spectrum".
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Emerging applications for light sources with a broad spectrum include optical coherence tomography imaging systems, which typically use so-called superluminescence LEDs (SLED) or amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) sources.
Another high volume potential of such devices may come with the introduction of silicon-based modulation technology in which many parallel channels are pumped by one light source.
The main drawback of SLEDs include limited power and low efficiency.
Having a laser which delivers light with high power density over wide range of wavelength is clearly beneficial for future WDM silicon-photonic based solutions, since the output can be spectrally split with sufficient power for highly efficient networks using a single source laser.
The development of quantum dot broad-band lasers has been focused mainly on this application.
However, work is also being done to extend the lasing spectrum above 40nm and looking for shorter term market potential, which may include medical and military applications.
Various innovative laser products using quantum dot technology have already been introduced and an optical timing source for high-end processors and communications applications is currently under development.
"Such a Broad-Band Laser is the latest of our innovations and we anticipate interest in its use for wide range of applications besides the obvious WDM networks", commented Juergen Kurb, CEO of the company.
Further development is focused on extending this technology by realising a so called comb-laser, a laser chip which provides lasing simultaneously on different selected wavelengths with uniform intensity distribution to have even higher power density per one channel.
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